1. Field of the Invention
An embodiment of the present invention relates to a print management program, a print management device, a print management method, and a print system for managing print jobs.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a commercial printing industry, a commercial print service provider receives a printed material (such as a catalog, or an advertisement) from a customer, the commercial print service provider produces a customer's desired printed output material from the printing material, and the commercial print service provider receives compensation in return for delivering the printed output material to the customer. The commercial print service provider produces the printed output material by performing plural processes including the reception of the printing material and the delivery of the printed output material. The processes from the reception of the printing material to the delivery of the printed output material include prepress processes, such as the reception of the printing material from the customer, a reception of printing conditions for a printed output material, a color correction, a layout modification, and a correction of a binding position; postpress processes, such as proof printing for the customer to confirm the result of the prepress processes, printing and subsequent binding, and pressure bonding; and the delivery of the printed output material to the customer. Here, the number of the processes between the reception of the printing material and the delivery of the printed output material varies depending on a customer's desired printing condition for the printed output material.
In a conventional commercial printing industry, a commercial print service provider tends to receive an order for printed materials that require mass printing from a customer, and the commercial print service provider responds to the mass printing of the printed materials by the above described processes. Further, for the printed materials that require the mass printing, there are many cases in which a printing condition on the printed materials from a customer is fixed. In the conventional commercial printing industry, the commercial print service provider performs the mass printing under a determined single printing condition. After completing the lot printing, the printing condition is altered, and the mass printing under the altered printing condition is performed again. Through such a print cycle, the customer's desired printed output material is produced.
In the above printing cycle, plural processes tend to occur, when the printing condition is altered. Therefore, when the printing condition is not altered, the commercial print service provider can perform continuous printing in an ongoing process. Thus the mass printing can be efficiently performed.
Recently, in the commercial printing industry, a so-called “print-on-demand (POD) market” is emerging, where relatively small lot of printed materials are delivered to a customer in a short delivery time. In the POD market, orders from plural customers tend to occur. Consequently, in the POD market, printed materials submitted to a commercial print service provider and printing conditions on printed output materials are diversified.
Further, recently, digital printing has been widely used, and a computer has been widely used for controlling processes for producing printed materials. For example, technologies are emerging, such as a workflow for submitting a printed material as electronic data through a network and for controlling the above described plural processes. For example, in the workflow, printing operations in the plural processes are defined using a job ticket, which is called “Job Definition Format (JDF),” and the printing operations are controlled by a printing system.
In accordance with such a change in the printing environment, commercial print service providers have been introducing the computer technologies into the printing systems, so as to produce printed materials, in response to receiving orders for the printed materials. On the other hand, the commercial service providers have been required to set up printing systems that can handle diversified printing conditions for the printed materials from customers. Further, in order to produce diversified printed materials desired by the customers, the commercial print service providers have been required to respond in a system aspect, such as introduction of plural printer devices and peripheral devices, as well as in a process aspect, such as modification of the above described plural processes in a relatively short cycle.
The commercial print service providers have been required to respond as described above. Additionally, the commercial print service providers may be required to improve operational efficiency so as to increase profit. Measures for improving the operational efficiency include simplification of the processes.
For example, the commercial print service providers are required to efficiently manage print jobs that are ordered day by day, and print the print jobs. However, as the number of the print jobs increases, it becomes difficult for the commercial print service providers to find a target print job among the massive amount of print jobs.
For example, a technology has been conventionally known such that, in an information processing system, an identification of an electronic document is indicated in a list of electronic documents or in a list of search results by displaying management information, an icon, or a thumbnail of the electronic document (e.g., Patent Document 1 (Japanese Published Unexamined Application No. 2005-275836)). Here, the information processing device may be a document management system, which includes a database of electronic documents, each of the electronic documents being associated with management information (such as a name of the electronic document, a file name, or a keyword), and which performs searching for information.
However, there is a problem that, when the target print job is searched for among the massive amount of print jobs, the commercial print service providers may be required to perform many operational steps, even if the commercial print service providers utilize the technology for indicating an identification of an electronic document in a list of electronic documents or in a list of search results by displaying management information, an icon, or a thumbnail of the electronic document.
For example, when a commercial print service provider searches for a target print job, the commercial print service provider specifies information, such as a keyword, included in the management information as a search condition and narrows down the number of the print jobs. Then the commercial print service provider may be required to select the target print job by observing the display of management information, icons, and/or thumbnails of electronic documents. Thus there is a problem that operability is low.